The advantages of silicon on insulator (SOI) technology for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits (ICs) are well documented. In general, undesired p-n junction capacitance between a source/drain and a substrate is reduced by approximately twenty-five-percent when using SOI technology. Furthermore, active current consumption is less and device access time is equivalent to that of similar devices formed on bulk-silicon substrates. Other advantages of SOI technology include suppression of the short channel effect, suppression of the body-effect, high punch-through immunity, and freedom from latch-up and soft errors. As the demand increases for battery-operated equipment, SOI technology is becoming increasingly more popular due to its low power requirements and high speeds.
There are many different techniques for isolating devices in ICs. A technique is selected according to its different attributes, such as: minimum isolation spacing, surface planarity, process complexity, and density of defects generated during fabrication.
SIMOX (Separation by IMplanted OXygen) technology is one method for forming SOI structures. SIMOX entails implanting a high dose of oxygen ions at a sufficiently deep level within a silicon substrate. A subsequent anneal step forms a buried oxide layer in the substrate. After the anneal step, an additional layer of epitaxial silicon is usually deposited to obtain a sufficiently thick silicon layer on which to form a device. Disadvantages of using SIMOX include its high expense and yield loss, which undesirably decreases achievable chip density.
Another technique for forming an isolation layer in a substrate is by the wafer bonding method. Using this technique, two oxidized silicon wafers are fused together through a high-temperature furnace step. However, this technique increases the substrate thickness, which is often a critical dimension. Furthermore, wafer bonding techniques are often plagued by low production yield due to particles/voids, which prevent adequate bonding between the two wafers in such areas.
Another technique used for forming an isolation layer in a substrate is by forming silicon islands through a series of etch and oxidation steps. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,162 (hereinafter the '162 patent) uses a series of a pad oxide layer, a silicon nitride layer, and a silicon dioxide layer, which is photolithographically masked and anisotropically etched to define silicon islands capped with a silicon nitride layer. Then, a second anisotropic etch (such as a reactive ion etch (RIE)) removes further substrate material between the silicon islands. The depth of the second anisotropic etch is proportional to the width of the silicon islands. A subsequent oxidation step forms silicon dioxide, undercutting the silicon islands and isolating each of them from surrounding regions. However, this technique has not been used commercially because it is too costly and consumes too much time to oxidize an area having an effective width as great as that of the feature size. Another disadvantage of this technique is that the resulting isolated silicon structure has excess mechanical stress and crystal damage at each of its corners, due to oxidation around the entirety of each individual island, which is necessary for its complete isolation. Furthermore, the method described in the patent application requires an additional planarization step, which adds complexity to the fabrication process.
There is a need for an effective isolation technique for sub-micron semi-conductor technology that is efficient and simple. A primary concern in the fabrication of ICs is simplicity and minimization of process steps. There is a need for an isolation technique that is inexpensive and compatible with large volume CMOS manufacturing technology. Furthermore, an isolation technique, which allows fabrication of highly dense ICs without increasing the dimensions of the IC is needed.